Our series of weekly NASCAR driver interviews continues with Travis Pastrana, the famed action sports star who has transitioned to the stock cars of NASCAR's Nationwide Series. Pastrana, who drives for Roush Fenway Racing, became a father this week when wife Lyn-Z Pastrana gave birth to a baby girl.

Q: From what you've seen, whose driving style is the most similar to yours?

A: Ironically, it's kind of more of the off-road guys. Just talking to Jimmie (Johnson) a little bit, he likes to leave a little early with the throttle and I like to leave a little early with the throttle. Obviously, the results aren't the same. (Smiles)

But also, Matt Crafton does the same thing. So between Carl Edwards, Matt and Jimmie, those are the guys who I've looked up to and tried to follow their lead. That's who I've tried to mimic as much as possible.

Q: How much of your personal memorabilia have you collected over the years? Have you saved firesuits and helmets, things like that?

A: I give everything away, but that's what parents are for. My mom has so much junk at the house. One day, I'm sure I'll look back at that and say, "Thank you, Mom!"

Dad always scrapbooked everything. There's piles of scrapbooks. You know, even when you were an amateur coming up on dirt bikes – if you'd get a half-page ad or something, it was a huge deal! Or if you got something in a magazine like Racer X or something. So we've got everything saved.

I think my dad kind of got lax about five years ago (when there started to be too many articles). He was like, "Alright. This is getting ridiculous."

Q: What percent of the overall success in NASCAR has to do with the driver, what percent is the car and what percent is luck?

A: You know, somebody said about Michael Schumacher – who was maybe the greatest driver of all time – that it wasn't he was so amazing, it was the fact he was able to tell them what he needed and made it work.

Jimmie Johnson, if you take him to the Race of Champions where he jumped in a bunch of different cars – a guy like Jeff Gordon crushes over there. He does great in whatever he jumps in. Like Tony Stewart, these guys are great drivers.

But a guy like Jimmie knows how to tell the crew chief and how to work with the team to get the car to go good. You saw Kyle Busch last year -- he didn't win anything, but he was still competitive with sub-par equipment because he could always make it work by the end.

So the short version of that question was I think the driver is probably 60%, but how the driver affects the car (with feedback) is probably another 30%. And then you're always going to have luck, but you'll find the same drivers get lucky and unlucky week after week.

Q: Outside of your family, what person has done the most for your career?

A: That's a good question, because it's definitely parents for most of us. But you know, in every sport it's been different. As far as NASCAR, it'd be Matt Crafton.

Q: You come into contact with so many people on a race weekend – your team, sponsors, media, fans – and all of them want a piece of your time. With all those demands, how do you divide up your time?

A: Well, I'm very fortunate to have a wife who is also an athlete (Lyn-Z is a professional skateboarder), because she also understands this. It's a relationship-killer in a lot of ways, because it's your job.

I had family come out to the X Games and they're like, "Hey! Let's have dinner!" I'm like, "I don't have time." They're like, "But we flew all the way out here!" I'm like, "I can see you any time at home; this is my job here."

So I say No. 1 is you have to be with your team – especially in NASCAR. That's more true here than in motocross, more than anything I've ever done. That has to be your priority.

But it's tough, because without the fans – especially with the results I've been getting – I won't have another year. I won't have another opportunity to do this. And I'm still a fan of the sport. So I've got to make sure my sponsors and everybody are taken care of.

For me, the fans are the reason I'm still racing and can jump from so many different sports. So that's a huge priority for me.

Travis Pastrana is in his first season driving the Nationwide Series for Roush Fenway Racing.(Photo: Kevin Liles, USA TODAY Sports)

Q: I've heard a lot of fans say something to drivers like, "Hey, remember me from that autograph session three years ago?" So it's clear they want to be remembered. If a fan really wants you to remember them, what is something they could do?

A: You know, there's a lot of kids who come up and go, "Gimme, gimme, gimme!" But it's the fans who come week in and week out who you see at more than one race that you remember. It's the kid who waits out there for a few hours and all his friends are over in everybody else's pit and grabbing the free swag, and he's just sitting out there (outside the hauler).

And the team notices. They'll be like, "Some kid" – or guy or girl or whoever it may be – "has just been awesome." It's almost repetition. You've got to be a true fan to sit outside there for someone you might only see for a couple seconds.

People who are passionate who really want an autograph will get an autograph. People are always like, "Oh! I missed you last time." I'm like, "Look, if you're really passionate, you'll know where I'm going to be, when I'm going to be there and you'll be remembered after awhile."

They don't need to be overaggressive and say, "Hey, remember me? Remember me?" Just be there and be cool.

Q: The last person you wrecked – did you do it on purpose?

A: There's only one person I ever wrecked on purpose, and that was when I was 14. It was at the Maryland Amateur Nationals. I got disqualified for controlling the outcome of the race.

I had crashed in the first turn of the first moto, so I had a 4-1 (fourth place and first place) and he had a 1-2, so I needed him to get third or worse in that (last) moto. (Laughs)

Basically, what it comes down to is every driver wants to win. Every driver is pretty calculated. You've got guys like Mad Max (Papis), and he took me and like six other guys out (at Mid-Ohio) and he was like, "I'm sorry!"

I'm like, "You're not sorry! But hey, that's racing though!" You know? Somebody deserved it and he took it out on us. But that's racing. You've got to separate on the track from off the track and a lot of guys can't do that.

Q: Is there anyone you used to clash with in racing and then you ended up smoothing things over and reaching an understanding?

A: Ricky Carmichael. Absolutely hated him. Wouldn't talk to him. When we were on the Suzuki test track, he threw me out and said, "You can't ride when I ride." And he was better, so of course everyone was like, "Yep, OK, you can't ride when he rides." I was like, "Damn it!" So I went and rode with the Yamaha test track with Chad Reed – who was also a complete (jerk), but we were good friends.

But now, it's so funny because (Ricky) went to X Games and did a lot of that stuff and he came to NASCAR – and we have a lot of the same successes and a lot of the same failures. So just every now and then, out of the blue, some irony that's funny as hell pops up. It's always cynical, but it's pretty funny.

Q: What's the best racing-related movie?

A: Oh, Days of Thunder. Everything you need to know about NASCAR you learn in that movie.

Q: What's your song of the moment right now?

A: Ironically, it's probably Blake Shelton's Kiss My Country ...

Are you a recent country music convert?

No, I grew up in Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia ... I mean, motocross, you're always in the middle of nowhere.

Q: Define yourself without NASCAR and all the action sports stuff you do. Who are you away from the track?

A: You know, I've been working on that. (Laughs) Any racer who has made it to the top of wherever they are, it's really hard because the sport defines you. And if it doesn't define you, you probably don't care enough about it to ever sacrifice everything to be great. So anybody who has ever been to the top at one point in their life, they are their sport.

Now, without the sport it's interesting because when you have bad results, when you have a wife, when you have a kid on the way (the Pastranas became parents on Monday), there's a lot more that I care about. But also at the same time, when my granddad says, "How you doin'?" I say, "I had two eighths, a 10th and a whatever." He says, "No, no. How are YOU?" And I don't know.

I asked Jeff Gordon that one time: "How are you doing?" He said, "I don't know any real racer that could tell you any different."

Q: I've been asking each person to give me a question for the next interview. The last person was Clint Bowyer and –

A: Oh, crap! (Laughs) Clint was asking the question?

Yeah. He wanted to know: "What wire did they leave off in your head?"

Probably a lot of them – but most of the same ones he has loose. So we get along pretty good.